Follow in my Footsteps
by Phantom J. Ryder
Summary: The first installment of Danny Phantom: Generation 2- Follow Diamond Fenson and friends as they strive to live up to the legend their ancestors left behind. No PP. Rating for character death and mention of blood.
1. Arrival

**Blanket** **Disclaimer: **Do I look like my name is Butch Hartman? Do I look like a boy? No, I didn't think so.

_Inspired by a "What If"_

* * *

"Diamond! How good to see you again, dear!"

"You too, Granma."

"Is school okay?"

"Yeah."

Then Matthew asked, "Mother, how are you?"

"Matt, son, I missed you! And Jackie, you look as lovely as ever, dear."

"Thank you, Lucy."

"Hello, Granma," Diamond's older brother said.

"Jase, dear, you've grown so much!" Lucile exclaimed.

"It's only been a month."

The family set their bags down and gave Lucile Fenson hugs. They were planning on staying at her house for the weekend to give the old lady company. Diamond's parents claimed she was "unstable," due to her belief in ghosts.

"Diamond," Lucile said, "have I ever told you about your great-grandfather?"

With a sigh, Diamond replied, "Yes, Granma. Many times."

"When he was your age," Lucile continued, "He was not only human, he was half ghost. It all started when his parents, who were great scientists, made this machine called the Ghost Portal. Danny, my father, went inside and –"

"That's enough Mom," Matt interrupted. "Diamond's heard this story plenty of times. And, while it's a great story, it's not real. Ghosts don't exist. I loved that story when I was little, but you need to recognize truth from fiction."

"I'm too old for ghost stories, Granma," Diamond added.

"Oh. I understand," Lucile said, disappointed. Then, cheering up, she added, "Why don't y'all come into the kitchen for some apple pie? It's fresh."

"That sounds wonderful, Lucy. We'd love to," Jackie said. The Fenson family entered the kitchen and sat down at the table. Lucile served pie and ice cream to everyone, and then sat down with her own slice. "So, Jase," she said, "have you thought about college yet?"

"Granma, that's not for another two years."

"I know, dear, but it's never too early to start thinking!" she said in an almost sing-song voice.

Jase sighed.

Jackie asked, "So, Lucy, what have you been up to lately?"

"Oh, lots, dear, lots! You should see my roses! They're absolutely gorgeous! I've got this one called Chocolate Rose, and it smells positively divine. This other one is named Voodoo, it's pink and yellow, and the blooms are huge! But my favorite is Bloodblossom; it's been in the family for generations! It supposedly wards off ghosts, hurting them if they get too near. However, if someone eats it, it no longer affects them. My father, Danny, learned that the hard way when he went back in time to defeat his arch enemy, Vlad. Apparently, though, it can't hurt halfas in their human form because Vlad –"

"That's very interesting, Lucy," Jackie cut in, "but what else have you been up to besides tending your roses?"

"Oh, yes, of course. I almost forgot. I was down in the basement to see if we could clean it out when I found some shirts Jase might like. Diamond, honey, why don't you go get them? They should be at the base of the steps, on the old table." Lucy stood up, collected the plates, and set them in the sink. Diamond stood as well, and said, "Okay, Granma."

She went through the laundry room, down the flight of stairs, and opened the creaky old metal door. Dust became unsettled as she stepped into the room and turned on the light. She coughed. Diamond quickly spotted the old oak table, to the right of the door. Its leg was broken, propped up on some old piece of metal. Diamond grabbed the top box after checking its contents. As she did so, something clattered to the floor. She picked it up. _'What's this?' _She thought.

The device was old, she could tell that much. It was metal, probably steel, and shaped like a rectangle. It had a bright green blotch with a worn "F" etched into the side. The thing was hand-held, with a screen, red light bulb, and a mini satellite dish. A large antenna stuck out of the top.

Diamond flipped it over, and to her surprise, a compartment on the bottom had a screw that took a Philip's head screwdriver. She looked around, and spotted a tool chest. Grabbing a screwdriver, Diamond fit it to the screw and forced it open. Much greater surprise came when she discovered the thing took AA batteries.

She picked up the box of shirts and carried both back up to the kitchen. Setting the box on the table, she wandered into the living room, where her parents and grandmother were talking.

"Mm-hmm. Sounds fun. Oh, Diamond, did you find the shirts? What's that?" Lucile asked.

"Yeah, I found the box pretty easily. As for this, I'm not sure."

"Oh wait, let me see. Oh, that's just some old Lab equipment. My parents cleaned out most of it, but there's still some junk left over. By the looks of it, that there is the Fenton Finder, one of Jack and Maddie's earlier inventions. It detected ghosts using satellites."

"Oh," Diamond replied. She stared at it for a sec, then asked, "Do you have any AA batteries? I need a few."

"Yes dear, they're in the drawer by the sink," Lucile responded, pointing to the kitchen. Diamond walked off.

She opened the drawer, grabbed three, and went back down into the basement. She flipped over the Fenton Finder, and placed the batteries inside. She put the cover back on, then screwed it closed. Diamond put the screwdriver back in the red tool chest, then turned on the device. Its screen blinked to life. It was mostly a circular red grid on a green background. There was a red dot in the center of the screen, and a red line traveled in a circle, like radar.

Suddenly, an automated female voice spoke, startling Diamond.

"Welcome to the Fenton Finder. A ghost is near. Walk forward."

With nothing better to do, Diamond started walking, until she came to a stack of boxes. _'What now?'_ she wondered.

"Ghost to your right. Please turn," the Fenton Finder instructed. Diamond followed suit.

"Ghost to your right. Please turn," it said again.

Diamond brushed her hair behind her ear. "Stupid thing," she said, "it's broken."

"Turn around," the Fenton Finder replied coolly, "Ghost is now behind you. You'd have to be some kind of moron not to see the ghost directly behind you."

Diamond scoffed, but turned around anyway. Nothing was behind her, so before it could say anything else, she pushed the "off" switch. The Fenton Finder powered down. She laid it on the table.

Really looking around for the first time, Diamond discovered the basement was larger than she first thought. There were quite a number of boxes piled up, but the ceiling was still a good ten feet away. Diamond remembered her grandmother had told her and Jase the "basement" used to be a fully equipped Laboratory, specially designed for studying ghosts and creating ecto-weapons.

She could see some of the old equipment covered in sheets, like comical ghosts, still behind the boxes. She peeked behind them, and discovered there was Lab stuff all along the back wall. _'That's weird,'_ she thought, _'Granma said it was all cleaned out.'_

Diamond checked the other walls, and sure enough, Lab equipment lined them all. Except one. The far right wall didn't have anything from the old Lab, just boxes collected over the years.

'_Huh. Odd,'_ Diamond thought.

"DIAMOND! Come here!"

Diamond jumped. Recognizing the voice as her father's, she replied, "Okay, coming!" She bounded up the stairs. "Yes, Dad?"

Matt handed her a suitcase. "Go put this in your room," he said.

Diamond took her luggage and headed upstairs. She passed Jase's open door, and saw he was on his computer, his bag open on his bed. "What are you doing?" she asked from the doorway.

"Studying for the history test." He said without looking up. "It's a lot of work, so I need some quiet."

"Oh, okay." Diamond toted her bag down the hall and into her room. She heaved the bag onto her bed, unzipped it, and put her clothes in the dresser and closet. Then she shoved the suitcase under her bed. The fourteen-year-old then put her cosmetics on the dresser and stared in the mirror. She sighed. "What now?" she asked her reflection. The girl in the mirror stared back at her with baby blue eyes, searching for an answer.

Diamond combed her fingers through her hair, separating her white lock from the rest of her raven head. She had always found the natural coloring odd, yet kind of pretty. It wasn't even platinum blonde, just pure white, on the right side of her face. Premature white could be caused by major stress, but she'd had it for as long as she could remember, and her parents said it was there when she was a baby, too. She didn't know what caused it.

Of course, her grandmother would relate it to something ghostly; probably in relation with her great-grandfather. "It's hereditary, and you're very special," she'd say.

Diamond was interrupted from her musings when her father called her to dinner. When she got downstairs, her grandmother was relating some extravagant tale, and her mother was politely listening. Jase was reading a psychology book, and her father was helping himself to some mashed potatoes. Diamond sat down and scooped some green beans onto her plate.

"Diamond, honey, I was just telling how John Fenton Nightingale defeated the witch that fateful year…"

* * *

_Is my characterization okay? Review please, concrit accepted._


	2. Album

**Forgotten Part of the Disclaimer: **Jackie is my OC. Everyone else is based off a character from the show, so they don't belong to me.

* * *

The very next morning, Diamond's grandmother was downstairs telling the Fenson family that they were all going to be helping her clean out the basement. "You can all take whatever I don't need, then we'll sell the rest in a garage sale. I also have a shed full of ecto powered junk my grandfather kept for no good reason... I'd love to tell ya'll the story of how Technus overshadowed it all, but we need to get to work."

As he usually did, at the mention of Technus; Matt sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Jackie, dear," Lucile said, "Why don't you and Diamond separate anything useful from all the junk down in the basement, while the boys and I do some heavy lifting in the shed out back, hm?"

* * *

Diamond thought about her episode with the Fenton Finder while helping her mother haul the tool chest and several other things to one side of the room, and the old table with unidentifiable pieces of junk to the other.

She wondered why it kept picking up something that wasn't really there. If anything her grandmother said was true, people could actually _see _ghosts. And there certainly wasn't a chill in the room.

'_Maybe it was another thing Jack and Maddie made that didn't work,'_ she thought. _'After all, Granma did say many their inventions were useless...'_

But then again, she was the most 'normal' one in the family. She knew that she never actually believed this ghost crap.

She was snapped away from her thoughts when Jackie said, "Diamond, dear, will you hand me that box over there, with the bedding?" And as an afterthought, she said, "Thanks."

Looking in the direction her mother was pointing; '_Huh? What's this?' _ Diamond wondered. She had moved the box, only to discover one of the sheet-covered _something's_ from the days of Fenton Works. She reached up, grabbed the corner of the sheet, and—

"Diamond, will you go get your grandmother and tell her we're done separating most of this stuff? She should be around back, ordering the boys about."

Her mouth was on auto-mode when she said, "Okay, Mom."

Her feet were on auto-mode too, as she went up the stairs and out the kitchen door, and around the side of the house. "Grandma?" she called.

"Over here, dear!" was her muffled reply.

Diamond went through the gate and saw the shed doors were open, nameless junk strewn haphazardly about the yard. A large vehicle was parked next to it, covered with a weather-proof tarp. She assumed it was metallic.

"Did you want something, dear?" her grandmother asked.

Her mind was still reeling, so she distractedly said, "Uh, Yeah, Mom and I finished separating most of the stuff down in the basement, and we wanted to know what you'd like us to do with it."

"Okay, dear, wait just a minute. Jase, hon, you and your father just keep at it 'til lunchtime, okay?"

Grandma chuckled as two groans were heard simultaneously from deep in the shed, and led the way.

* * *

In the basement, Lucile Fenson examined their work. They had placed everything they thought Lucy might want to keep on the left side of the room, and obvious junk on the right.

Diamond had a little pile of old CDs she wanted, and Jackie had found a small woven tapestry she liked.

"Well, girls," Lucile commented, "I have to say, you did a good job. I don't need the tool chest, but Matt can have it. And this—" she bent down, and pulled a pink mug inscribed with the phrase 'World's Best Mom' out of the junk pile, "—is still perfectly good. It was my grandmother's lucky mug, and I want to keep it. Other than that, everything seems to be in order."

Diamond asked, "What about this stuff? Can we keep it?"

"Of course, dear. I don't need that music... and you can have my old player, too. Jackie, I've got so many pictures on my walls I won't miss that one." Lucy replied.

"Thanks," Jackie said. She glared at her daughter, and Diamond thanked her too.

Lucile surveyed the room. There were still some boxes here and there, and an old bench, but other than that everything had been cleaned out. There were some old file cabinets and counters... but that was fine.

But then Lucy's eyes came to rest on the thing Diamond had found. "What's this?" she asked, leaning closer.

"I'm not sure, Granma. I didn't get a chance to look."

Lucile uncovered the object. "Oh my," she said, "I-I can't believe it's still here. I thought this was gone for good. Thank you for finding it, Diamond!"

"You're welcome… I think. What is it?"

The object, which was green, was a round net on a black stand. It had feathers hanging from it, and was taller than Diamond.

"It looks like a dream-catcher," Jackie said.

"Close, hon," Lucile answered. "It's the Fenton Ghostcatcher. It works like a dream-catcher, except it filters ghosts, not nightmares. For instance: Danny passed through it and his ghost half separated from him. Look,"

Lucile pointed out that on the rim it said 'Side one: Separate' and on the other it said 'Side two: Merge.'

"So you see, it was a problem for Danny, but it helped him once or twice. Hmm… I wonder why it's still down here. I thought my parents got rid of all the ghost stuff after my father quit the hero business. I wonder… Do you think these cabinets are full of Lab stuff?"

"I'm not sure, Lucy, maybe they do." Jackie said. "It's almost lunchtime, so why don't we go make some sandwiches. Diamond, will you go get your father and brother, please?"

"Okay, Mom." Diamond could tell her mother was trying to get Lucy to stop talking about ghosts. She went back out to the shed and told Matt and Jase to come inside for lunch.

Both men were grateful and dropped whatever they were doing in an instant and dashed inside.

Some things just never change.

* * *

While eating her sandwich, Diamond thought about the Ghostcatcher. She wondered why her grandmother was so happy to see it. _'Well, it's obvious she's got emotional ties to it,' _Diamond thought. _'But why mention the cabinets? How much Lab equipment did her parents _have_?'_

As if in answer to her thoughts, Lucile said, "Diamond, if there really _is _some Lab stuff still down there, I'd like to show you and Jase some of it. Okay?"

"Alright, Granma," Diamond replied.

"Oh, Jase, doesn't that sound fun?"

"Absolutely enthralling." He said sarcastically.

Lucy didn't notice. As always.

Diamond hated to admit it, but she was curious about what exactly might be down there. What kind of people were Maddie, Jack, Danny, and Sam? What did they do?

* * *

After lunch, Jackie and Matt went outside to organize the shed, while Lucile showed a very unhappy Jase and a mildly curious Diamond some of the Lab equipment.

"…And this is the Fenton Thermos. Danny used it to catch all kinds of ghosts. Wait, what's this?" Lucy bent down, and took an old dusty book off the bottom shelf of the cabinet.

"Well, I never… this is my mother's journal!" She exclaimed. "From the date I'd say… she was your age, Diamond, when she wrote this. Fourteen, the same age my father was when he got his ghost powers. You might like to read it, Princess."

"Okay," Diamond said, uncertain. She took the diary from her grandmother, holding it delicately, wondering what lie inside.

Jase, on the other hand, was clearly bored. "So, can I go now?" he said. "I need to study for a big test coming up."

"That's fine, dear." Lucile cheerily replied. "You go on ahead. We wouldn't want to get your grades down on account of me, now would we?" She laughed, as if at some private joke.

Jase sighed as he left the room.

"Diamond, I'm going to get one of your parents to help me take this junk outside so we can price it for the garage sale. Will you please close that cabinet?"

"Um, sure."

"Thanks, dear."

As Diamond moved to close the door of the metal cabinet, a book on the bottom shelf fell. She bent down to right it, but it fallen open. She peeked inside.

'_It's a photo album,'_ she thought. She took the album and the diary up to her room, and plopped down on her bed. She flipped through a few pages of pages of photos.

* * *

Most of them were of a black-haired boy with blue eyes, and an African-American with glasses and a red beret. A few had a girl wearing all black, an almost Gothic setup. All of them appeared to be Diamond's age. She figured the blue-eyed boy was Danny, and the Goth was Sam.

She stopped when she came to a picture of a white-haired boy with—Wait, were his eyes glowing?

Diamond closed her eyes and shook her head.

She looked at the picture again.

Nope, still glowing.

She looked at the rest of his outfit. He was wearing what appeared to be Spandex, or maybe Hazmat. It was black, and his belt, gloves, and boots were white, along with a funky symbol on his chest.

'_It almost looks like a D.' _Diamond mused. _'Wait a minute,'_

She flipped back a few pages, to the picture of Danny in front of some sort of hexagon-shaped door with caution stripes. He was holding a white safety suit with black gloves and boots.

Diamond looked closely, and sure enough, on the front of the suit was a black version of the symbol! The suits were the same, in opposing colors. The two boys were of the same build, with opposite colored hair and eyes.

That door had to be significant, Diamond just knew it.

She flipped forward a few pages, then stopped, wide-eyed. There, on the page, was Danny. He had glowing blue rings around his chest. The picture was fuzzy, but she could tell, in between the two rings was..._the black jumpsuit._

Suddenly it dawned on Diamond. She looked at the next photo. The boy in the suit was suspended in the air. Not like jumping, not at all. No, he was too high, and appeared to still be going upward.

He was flying.

Then Diamond knew. She just _knew_ who this was. It was Danny Fenton, her great grandfather. Tucker must be the boy with the beret. Diamond looked at the picture of the flying boy.

Danny Phantom. A ghost. Her grandmother was right all along.

A chill crawled up Diamond's spine. A half ghost? What else was her grandmother right about? What did this mean for _her?_

She took a deep breath. "Okay." She said aloud.

Again she looked at the picture of the door. "That must be the Ghost Portal. And there's the door to the stairs, so the Portal's on the right wall. Wait, maybe that's why there wasn't any Lab stuff on that wall...But then where is the Portal?"

She went downstairs to the living room, leaving the album on her bed. "Granma?" she called. Walking towards the 'hum?' she heard, she said, "Can I ask you a few questions?"

* * *

_I'm trying to get this story longer by about a page each time. How am I doing?_

_A BIG thank-you to my beta, MarkTheTinyGiraffe. She really polished this chapter so it shines!_

_For those who might be confused: The reason nobody has powers is I want Diamond to go into the Portal. The reason she's not his kid and no one believes Lucile is because for my story the world has forgotten about the Hero of Amity Park. I hope that clears things up._

_Make sure and check out my BFF's awesome story Paranormal Investigation. Her name is Reyna Elizabeth Masters._

_Later, peeps!_


End file.
